Naval analysts predicted that by 1914 the German dreadnought fleet would have achieved parity with that of the British. Matters reached a head in March 1908, when the German Reichstag approved the funding for the building of four dreadnoughts a year. From that moment the gloves were off, as both countries tried to expand their battle fleet as quickly as they could. The German response was to commission its own dreadnoughts, the first of which were laid down in the summer of 1907. Since the completion of HMS Dreadnought in December 1906, the British Admiralty had been eager to expand its dreadnought fleet as rapidly as possible, before its naval rivals could do the same. The viewpoint is from the highest point of the island of Flotta and looks across the main anchorage towards the Orkney mainland around Orphir.īy 1909, Great Britain was in the middle of an arms race. The Grand Fleet at anchor in Scapa Flow, captured by the artist Sir John Lavery in December 1917.
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ILLUSTRATED BY PAUL WRIGHT © Osprey Publishing BRITISH BATTLESHIPS 1914–18 (2) The Super Dreadnoughts
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